Editorial

retest collapsing cities’ managers

Every year for the past five years Bangalore/Bengaluru (pop.14 million), globally recognized as India’s digital technologies epicentre and ICT (information communication technologies) hub, has experienced severe eve-of-monsoon and monsoon rain and flooding. This year is no different. At time of writing, pre-monsoon showers have severely disrupted road traffic, damaged residential and office property and prompted […]

Reverse intelligentsia secession

At bottom, operation sindoor and the near outbreak of yet another major war between India and neigbouring Pakistan, is the outcome of secession of the subcontinent’s educated middle class from the political arena in both countries.

Although over the past 77 years India and Pakistan have graduated legions of college and university graduates, many of whom […]

Time to apply closure on inglish status

Rising apprehension in the southern states of India — especially in Tamil Nadu — that Hindi, the dominant language of the BIMARU (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) states, is overtly and covertly being imposed as the national language, is justified. The mandate of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is that all in-school […]

Beginning of end of Trump presidency

After completing 100 days of his second term in office as President of the United States (POTUS) of America, the world’s most economically, academically and militarily powerful nation, it’s now quite clear to all except the most intellectually arid elements of American society (their number alas, is not insignificant), that it’s the beginning of the […]

WHR 2025: unwarranted cynicism

The recently published world Happiness Report (WHR) 2025 in which India is ranked #118 below countries like Pakistan (#109), Iran (99), Saudi Arabia (32),Turkiye (94), Nepal (92), Gabon, Kenya, Mozambique and even war-devastated Palestine (108) and Ukraine (111), is a resounding slap on the establishment.

Unsurprisingly, politicos and the media have reacted indignantly to WHR 2025 […]

JUDGES: Public must have some voice

The accidental discovery on march 14 of a huge cash stash variously estimated as Rs.5-50 crore in the outhouse of a government-allotted bungalow of Justice Yashwant Varma, an incumbent judge of the Delhi high court, has resurrected the question of judicial accountability. Also the hastily-buried issue of how judges of the Supreme and high courts […]

PM: Time to Establish Indian Doge

For people who value social skills and refinement, America’s newly re-elected President Donald J. Trump is a difficult man to like. He comes across as a swaggering bully intent on instilling fear into government employees and heads of state abroad.

America’s 46th president is only too aware that the United States is the world’s wealthiest, economically […]

Aga Khan IV: Exemplary Muslim Leader

The death in Lisbon, Portugal of Prince Karim Aga Khan IV at age 88 on February 4, didn’t get as much media coverage in India as it merited. For sixty-eight years Prince Karim spiritually and temporally guided the small, globally dispersed Nizari Ismailiasm Shia Muslim community of Middle East and subcontinental origin. Despite the estimated […]

Time to permit high street banks

The dip in India’s GDP growth rate in the third quarter (October-December) to 6.2 percent came as a great disappointment to monitors of the Indian economy and citizenry. This disappointing performance against earlier forecast of 7.5-8 percent has prompted the World Bank and IMF to revise their forecast for fiscal 2024-25 to 6.2-6.5 percent.

Although government […]

Budget we need & budget we’ll get

By the time readers of this sui generis publication which recently crossed the milestone of 25 years of uninterrupted publishing read this editorial, the Union Budget 2025-26 will have already been presented to Parliament and the public by long-tenured Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

With the annual rate of GDP growth unlikely to exceed 6.5 percent […]

Kerala govt to consider including study of laws in school curriculum

Transform Constitution Into Live Charter

The constitution of India was promulgated as the governance charter of free, independent India on January 26, 1950. However November 28, the day on which the final draft of the Constitution was approved by Parliament in 1949, is celebrated countrywide as Constitution Day. In the last session of Parliament, on its 75th anniversary, the Constitution […]

Wealth tax: Eliminate Government Agency

A recent visit to India by Thomas Piketty, renowned professor of economics at the Paris School of Economics who has acquired a global reputation for his ground-breaking research on wealth inequality in several countries, has reignited the debate about high wealth disparity in contemporary India. At issue is whether priority should be given to […]

Urgently required judicial reforms

The retirement of DY Chandrachud from office as the 50th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India on November 10 at the mandatory retirement age of 65, marks an important milestone in the checkered history of India’s judiciary.

During his eight-year career as a judge of the Supreme Court and two years as CJI, Chandrachud […]

Good New Wind From America

The election of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States — the wealthiest, most innovative and most powerful military nation worldwide — has shocked most well-educated and refined people who expect decorum, culture and character in government and society leaders. That the American people have elected him to be their executive President, […]

25th Anniv call for common cause

Twenty-five years of uninterrupted publication is a major mile-stone for any news and views publication. Therefore, a measure of congratulations to EducationWorld editors and marketing personnel who have laboured beyond call of duty to keep this publication alive is justified.

When EW was launched on the eve of the new millennium with the mission “to build […]

Time to redraw settled borders

The recent thaw in Sino-India relations following a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Modi and China President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the XVI BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit held in Kazan (Russia) last month, is an overdue and welcome development that augurs well for both neighbour nations to smoke […]

Continuous Erosion of Social Contract

According to the national crime Records Bureau (NCRB) Report 2024, the number of reported crimes in India last year was 445.9 for every 100,000 people, slightly lower (487.8) than in 2022. The most frequent crime is theft, followed by robbery and assault. States with greatest lawlessness are Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, and Bihar, and […]

Three pre-conditions of Viksit Bharat

Although government leaders and spokespersons proclaim from every housetop and public platform that the Indian economy is clocking “highest worldwide” GDP growth and is in a sweet-spot smoothly navigating towards the objectives of Viksit Bharat and a $30 trillion (from the current $3 trillion) GDP by 2047, the reality is that it is sailing in […]

Supreme Court Must Exercise Power

There is much that’s admirable about India’s free and independent judiciary. Although it’s commonly accepted that the lower judiciary comprising the district, city, civil, family and magistrates courts is in disarray, learned judgements delivered by the country’s metropolitan high and Supreme Courts are usually praiseworthy for their fierce independence, reasoning and academic excellence. The descriptive […]

Lessons From Bangladesh Meltdown

The swift fall of the seemingly impregnable Sheikh Hasina government in neighbouring Bangladesh, and her dramatic flight to New Delhi to escape rampaging mobs in Dhaka, offers several important lessons for India. Perhaps for all developing countries where constitutional checks and balances are not as well developed as in older democracies.

First it’s important to note […]

Why children must be encouraged to play

The Olympic games being staged in Paris have evidently fascinated middle class India, if not the remainder of the population. Daily television viewership in India of the games staged between July 26-August 11 has reportedly ranged between 100 and 120 million, with the nation cheering the modest performance of our 117 track and field athletes. […]

Prevent reversion to Nehruvian socialism

Addressing a post-budget meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry, arguably the largest representative body of private organised sector big business, on July 30, even if somewhat belatedly Prime Minister Narendra Modi clarified the BJP/NDA government’s economic development ideology. He described India Inc leaders as “wealth creators” and “driving force of India’s growth story”. Decoded, […]

Inequality: higher taxes bad solution

According to Paris-based economist Thomas Piketty, income inequality in India is so great that it warrants introduction of wealth and inheritance taxes on the top 10 percent of the country’s rich. Evidently, Piketty is not sufficiently informed about the profusion of taxes already imposed upon every citizen of India, starting with the middle class which […]

General election 2024: Why BJP lost ground

The surprise result of general Election 2024 in which the ruling BJP which had set itself a target of 400 seats of the total 543 in the 18th Lok Sabha won a mere 240 and for the first time since 2014 has to rely on its NDA (National Democratic Alliance) allies to form a government […]

India’s prolonged inventions drought

Last month, Shrinivas R. Kulkarni, an Indian-origin professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), was awarded the prestigious 2024 Shaw Prize in astronomy.

Kulkarni is the latest from a long list of emigrant scientists, economists, authors and academics who have made notable and significant contribution to the creation, advancement and dissemination of new knowledge and […]

PM Modi interacts with students on 'Know Your Leader' Programme

Agenda for new central government

With all campaigning for General Election 2024 by order of the Election Commission obliged to end today (May 30) and a new government set to be sworn in at the Centre by the time this issue of EducationWorld is accessible to readers, this is a good time to draw up an agenda for the new […]

Root cause of perennial unemployment

Although obfuscated by more populist issues such as the drift into electoral autocracy, diminution of minority rights and threat to pluralism and secularism from assertive Hindutva majoritarianism, rising youth unemployment is likely to prove a key issue in General Election 2024, the outcome of which will be declared on June 4. Unemployment data available in […]

Elections must reflect will of all people

This editorial is being penned on the day voting for General Election 2024 has commenced in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, which will be represented by 42 and 39 representatives in the next 543-member-strong Lok Sabha that will convene in June after a new government is sworn in by President Murmu. Spread over seven weeks […]

Ways & means to fund political parties

Full disclosure of details of the Electoral Bonds Scheme (EBS) by the State Bank of India and Election Commission following stern admonition by the Supreme Court of India, is proof that despite dismantling of the licence-permit-quota regime in 1991, government still exercises substantial control over industry and commerce. That’s why a large number of companies […]

Reset of Sino-India relations overdue

Amid all the hype and hoopla about India having become the world’s fifth largest economy with a $4 trillion GDP and fastest annual rate of 6.2 percent GDP growth, it’s an unpleasant, but necessary duty to strike a discordant note.

GDP should be measured according to the per capita metric and not by way of absolute […]

Bulldozer justice & estoppel doctrine

The midnight demolition of miner Wakeel Hassan’s home in Delhi by bulldozers of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has again highlighted the contempt and cruelty with which government and its agencies interact with bottom-of–pyramid citizens. Hassan attained national fame last November when he led a team of 12 self-trained ‘rat-hole’ miners (who venture down narrow […]

Reaffirmation of judicial independence

There was always a bad smell about the electoral bonds scheme (EBS) introduced by the ruling BJP government in the Union Budget 2017-18 as a Money Bill (exempt from approval by the Rajya Sabha). The unanimous judgement of a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court delivered on February 15, striking it down as unconstitutional is […]

Set ball rolling in judicial reforms

The latest supreme court verdict in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape and multiple murder case which dates back to the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat, has somewhat redeemed the image of the apex court which has failed to mandate the root and branch judicial reforms which independent India patiently awaits. An estimated 4,000 citizens of India’s […]

Ram Mandir: What teachers should teach

Contrary to the assertions of die-hard Left influenced secularists and regressive Muslim leaders, the smooth establishment and consecration of the resplendent Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on January 22 will strengthen Hindu-Muslim harmony rather than damage it. As such, it bodes well for snuffing out the embers of communal fires lit by Muslim warlords from Central […]

Why BJP Swept Assembly Elections

The sweeping victory of the BJP in three out of four legislative assembly elections — Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh — whose results were declared on December 3, has some important lessons for INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) and the Congress party which is likely to lead this 28-party alliance in General Election 2024 […]

Local Governance Can Save India’s Cities

In the latest mercer index 2023 of the world’s most livable cities, Hyderabad is top-ranked in India. But in the global index, it is ranked a lowly #153. Urban blight defined by air pollution, road traffic jams, frequent electricity and water supply cuts, poor law and order maintenance, is spreading across big and small cities, […]

Foreign varsities: off-putting provisions

After years of dithering, on November 8 the University Grants Commission (UGC) published a draft of rules and regulations which detail the terms and conditions under which foreign universities will be permitted to establish campuses in India.

The primary driver behind this initiative is the large and ever increasing number of Indian school leavers and college […]

Why Sahara Ponzi scam flourished

The death on November 14 of Subroto Roy (75), former Managing Worker of the Lucknow-based Sahara Group of finance and real estate companies, received considerable coverage in the media.

By any yardstick Roy’s rags-to-riches rise was impressive. At the peak of his career, this enterprising entrepreneur who began as a chit fund manager, owned a civil […]

Hostile country for children

There is a dangerous sickness of selfishness and indifference, if not hostility, towards children spreading far and wide within Indian society. Two glaring examples of callous cruelty towards youngest citizens highlight this malaise which is becoming endemic in this benighted republic, whose leaders are given to making loud proclamations about India’s inevitable emergence as a […]

Rather than hard, work smart

Industry leader and corporate tycoon N.R. Narayana Murthy’s exhortation to youth to work 70 hours per week to enable the country to grow into a $30 trillion (from the current $3.7 trillion) economy by 2047, has stirred a hornet’s nest among the woke brigades. Suddenly, trendy television news anchors and grave editorial writers are discussing […]